FARNHAM HUNDRED 



remainder to his other sons.>" The brothers and 

 sisters died without issue, and Charles Williams 

 resumed the name of Bacon and succeeded to the 

 estate."" 



In 1796 Moor Park was leased to a Mr. Timson, 

 but in 181 1 Charles Bacon was still holding.*" 

 His son Charles Basil Bacon, who succeeded him 

 in 1820, sold Moor Park to Mr. La Trobe Bateman 

 in i858.»i» In 1883 Mr. F. R. Bateman was hold- 

 ing the manor."" In 1890 it was sold to Sir 

 William Rose, whose widow sold it in 1899 to Mrs. 

 Johnston-Foster. 



In the grounds of Moor Park to the south is 

 St. Mary's Well, in an opening at the foot of the 

 greensand hill above the Wey, whence Waverley 

 Abbey was supplied with water. The cave through 

 which the water runs is locally known as Mother 

 Ludlam's Hole, from an alleged witch who is 

 supposed to have lived there ' once upon a time.' 

 The popular story is that Ludwell is the old name 

 for St. Mary's Well. This has originated from the 

 inaccurate version of a story from the Waverley 

 Annals (a.d. 1216), quoted by Aubrey as told him 

 by a clergyman friend of Sir William Temple.'" 

 According to this Ludwell well ran dry, and an 

 ingenious monk restored its supply by leaden pipes 

 under the river.'" The probability is, however, 

 that Ludwell was in another place, and that instead 

 of restoring the supply of Ludwell the monk dis- 

 covered fresh springs, connected them by leaden 

 pipes, and made a new supply at St. Mary's Well to 

 take the place of Ludwell. "s Popular tradition 

 has it that a hermit named Foote lived in a hole 

 close by the spring. A more likely form of the 

 story is that Foote was a lunatic who came one day 

 to the hole and was found on the next day in a 

 dying state and removed to the workhouse, where 

 he died. On the road from Moor Park to Waver- 

 ley is a cottage now commonly called ' Stella's 

 cottage,' but as in the early nineteenth century it 

 seems to have been known as ' Dean Swift's 

 House,' "' it is diflScult to decide whether it was 

 actually occupied by either ' Stella ' or Dean 

 Swift. 



The scenery here is very beautiful, the river 

 flowing through a narrow meadow valley between 

 fir-clad sand-hills. Trout are abundant and of 

 fair size. There is a heronry hard by at the 



FARNHAM 



Black Lake in the woods between Waverley and 

 the Tilford-Farnham road. 



TILFORD (Tileford) tithing "o Hes south- 

 east of Moor Park and Waverley, where the two 

 branches of the W^y, the one coming from the 

 north past Farnham and Waverley, and the other 

 from the south-west, through Woolmer forest and 

 Frensham, unite. From the earliest times on 

 record it seems to have been the duty of the 

 borough corporation of Farnham to repair the two 

 bridges in Tilford."' In 1574 a piece of land 

 close to Tilford Green called Bridge Land was set 

 apart for the repair of the bridges,"2 and the 

 annual rent, 13/. 4^., appears regularly in the 

 borough accounts. Between the bridges on the 

 south side of the southern branch of the river is 

 the fine old oak popularly but wrongly known as 

 ' The King's Oak.' 123 More probably »24 it should 

 be called by the name ' Novel's Oak,' as it is found 

 on the old estate maps, and as it was called by the 

 older villagers. 125 



Tilford appears as a tithing of the manor of 

 Farnham as early as the beginning of the thirteenth 

 century.' 2a There is an interesting note in 1278 

 that the bishop has only free warren in his manor 

 from the bank of Tilford to Alice Holt forest.'^' 

 This meant that his right was confined to the north 

 side of the southern branch of the Wty, and only 

 included half of Tilford. There was a Roman 

 kiln on the spot, the old farm-houses are roofed 

 with red weather tiles, evidently of local manufac- 

 ture, and there is still a pottery at Charleshill close 

 by. The greater part of the tithing is still copy- 

 hold of the manor of Farnham, but some of it is 

 parcel of Frensham Beale. The manor contained 

 till recently, and still has remaining, some small 

 farms of 30 acres, which in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury retained the name yardlands, the virgata of 

 mediaeval tenures. Parts of the estate, particu- 

 larly to the south, are sandy and mostly unpro- 

 ductive, except of conifers. But the whole locality 

 is very picturesque, and like much of the old 

 Surrey waste land has been parcelled out for the 

 building of pleasant country houses. 



TILFORD HOUSE '^s itself dates from about 

 1690. It is a substantial red brick house with 

 panelled rooms. It was purchased soon after 1760 

 by Mrs. Elizabeth Abney, only surviving child of 



'" Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr, 

 iii. 139. 



»" Ibid. 139. '" Ibid. 



"* Ibid. At this time about thirty 

 of the Moor Park pictures were sold to 

 Lord Palmerston, a descendant of Sir 

 William Temple, but some others were 

 recently in the possession of the family 

 of Mr. Timson. From papers in pos- 

 session of Capt. K. V. Bacon, 

 nephew of Mr. Charles Basil Bacon. 



'"■ Surr. Arch. Coll. viii. Intro, xiii. 



"8 Probably Rev. Thomas Swift of 

 Puttenham, Temple's chaplain, and 

 cousin to Jonathan Swift. 



"' Aubrey, Hist, of Surr. iii. 149, 

 161. 



"8 Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.) ii. 284. 

 The account is perfectly clear : — ' Exsic- 

 catus fons, videlicet Ludewell . . . frater 

 Symon . > • aggressus est opus satis 



II 



durum scilicet exquirere et indagare 

 novas aquarum vivarum venas . . . 

 vocabulum funtis est Sanctae Mariae 

 fons.' The performance was celebrated 

 in verse with only four false quantities 

 in two lines : 

 Vena novi fontis, ope Symonis in pede 



montis 

 Fixa fluit jugiter, fistula format iter. 



119 Local information. 



120 The tithing possibly derived its 

 name from an early manufacture of 

 tiles in the locality. There is also a 

 frequent mention of a meadow called 

 ' Tilebed ' in the Mins. Ace. Also of 

 Tilehill or TilehuUe — both probably in 

 Tilford. 



121 The cost of repairing the same 

 induced Mr. William Shotter to sur- 

 render the borough charters in 1789. 

 Vide Farnham Borough. 



593 



122 Farnham Borough papers at Farn- 

 ham Castle. A quit rent is still made 

 to the Ecclesiastical Commission. 



'23 It has been identified as the oak 

 mentioned in the charter given to 

 Waverley by Bishop Henry de Blois as 

 ' the oak at Kynghoc,' which was a 

 boundary mark in the lands of the 

 abbey. Dugdale, Mon. i. 703. 



'21 The Waverley boundary is well 

 known, and does not come so far south 

 as this oak by half a mile. 



12s Information from Charles Tayler 

 Ware, Esq., who lived at Tilford 

 House. 



'26 Eccl. Com. Rent R. 9 and 10 

 John, etc. 



'27 Assize R. No. 876, m. 2. 



'28 Called 'the Great House' in 

 old estate maps. 



75 



